Computer and Solid-state drive

[DaveM]

I recently upgraded my PC as I mentioned in this thread Computer specs. This is the first time I have had a SSD installed on any of my computers and the difference is stunning compared to the normal HD.

The difference really became apparent when I needed to recover data off my old HD and needed to boot from it. I installed the old drive as a second drive booted from it. I could not believe how long it took to boot-up on the same computer. Then when I opened outlook it also took some time to load where as on the SSD it is almost instantaneous.

So what exactly is a SSD and why does it work so much faster than the normal HD?

Like a memory stick, there are no moving parts to an SSD. Rather, information is stored in microchips. Conversely, a hard disk drive uses a mechanical arm with a read/write head to move around and read information from the right location on a storage platter. This difference is what makes SSD so much faster.

They still are rather pricey but it would be well worth you money to get a smaller capacity drive just to load your OS and application onto and have your data stored on a second normal HD

 

[APS]

I did the same a while back,my OS is on SSD drive.If you blink during boot up you miss it

 

[Snog]

Yep, the computer I'm on now has the OS on SSD and boots amazingly fast.

Our HTPC, and my file servers here all have SSDs in them for the OS.

 

[DaveM]

I am starting to think I should have rather got a 1TB instead of the 500GB but the price get rather high as you go up in size and I was already far past what I wanted to spend on a PC.

 

[Snog]

I am starting to think I should have rather got a 1TB instead of the 500GB but the price get rather high as you go up in size and I was already far past what I wanted to spend on a PC.

If you have that much on your OS/Program drive, then you have far too many programs.

If you're using the SSD as your OS, Program and Data drive, you're condemning the drive to an early death.

 

[Evil Eye]

If you're using the SSD as your OS, Program and Data drive, you're condemning the drive to an early death.

Weren't they getting better at... not dying early deaths?

 

[APS]

My SSD is 120Gb for OS only. My other drive is 1Tb partitioned into 2 for downloads and storage.

 

[Snog]

Weren't they getting better at... not dying early deaths?

Yes, they are much better than they were say 5 years ago and will last a long time now.

But, I'm still a believer that the fewer writes to an SSD, the longer it will last.

 

[Daniel]

Yes, they are much better than they were say 5 years ago and will last a long time now.

But, I'm still a believer that the fewer writes to an SSD, the longer it will last.

That's true, though I don't even see a need for a very large drive cause I store most of my files on Google Drive.

As to the original post, I could not possibly go back to using a mechanical drive as my boot drive...I would go absolutely mad. I already have to work on some computers that still have mechanical drives and it makes me realize how spoiled I am.

 

[Ghoul]

I think it was about a year ago I opened up my 2011 iMac and stuck a SSD in there. Best decision ever. It was starting to get a bit slow and hanging at time and I knew there was nothing wrong with the machine the processor is an i7, 12GB of RAM so yeah.

 

[Ghoul]

If you have that much on your OS/Program drive, then you have far too many programs.

If you're using the SSD as your OS, Program and Data drive, you're condemning the drive to an early death.

While SSDs do have a limited write cycled, I think you'd have to constantly be writing several GB of data straight for 3/4 years before it'd die. So for normal use you're going to easily get well over 5 at which point it's probably time for a new PC.

 

[Snog]

So for normal use you're going to easily get well over 5 at which point it's probably time for a new PC.

Not necessarily true. I have a PC that I built in 2004 or 2005, all parts used are still available (and sold in new PCs) today. The only reason I retired it is I got the itch to build a new computer. But if I plugged it in, it would still run everything quite well.